This morning’s post comes to us from the staff at Nyawita Center in Kisumu.

When Caroline joined the CARE for AIDS program at Nyawita Center, she was depressed and very weak. Her CD4 count was only 70, and her body was covered in sores. She was always quiet and withdrawn, and rarely participated in conversations or activities during her counseling sessions. After three months, however, she started to open up. During one of her counseling sessions, she confessed that she had been separated from her first husband, and had remarried out of desperation- she had been unable to provide for her children, so she married an older man who could feed their family and help pay school fees for her children. Soon after she married her second husband she got pregnant, and during a routine prenatal checkup, she found that she had contracted HIV.

When her new husband found out that she was HIV+, he neglected her and her children. The children dropped out of school because he stopped paying their school fees and he soon stopped buying food for the family.

She joined the CARE for AIDS program very quickly after she found out about her status, and her life has already changed drastically. She has found community in the center, and meets with her small group from the program each Tuesday. She even started a small business with some of the skills she has learned in the economic empowerment sessions, and, as a result, her four children have very recently been able to go back to school. Her health has already drastically improved, and her CD4 count has gone from 70 to 150. Her body weight has also increased from 46kg to 55kg .

Finally, she is an active member of a church called CCA (Church of Christ of Africa). We thank God for her life and family. Lets pray for her as she works hard in taking care of her children and herself.